My group project website

[yamahagirl]

Hi I am new to this forum and have just created a website for use in my group project at university. Please have a look and see what you think:

Auction House site (http://student.dc.lincoln.ac.uk/~u052796805/)

It was created with Evrsoft 2003 as I needed something quick for a sample to show the "client". None of the buttons link to other pages as yet because we are presenting several options and the most appealing one will be chosen. The validator images do not link either as the code will need to be tidied up before they can be officially validated.

Many thanks for your time.

Suzanne

[Spock]

The following is my personal opinion only:

1. The director looks an awful lot like the Governor of California in his younger days.

2. The main title/heading looks too blocky for a commercial site.

3. The picture on the right looks like a rearranged classroom.

I'm assuming the above aren't really valid as the "website" is simply a student project. Good start but the graphics need to be fine tuned a bit more.

[Terminator1138]

Hmm looks like something that was created in the early days of the web. I would use CSS as graphical buttons, Looks more professional in the long run. The buttons are a bit bigger than needed also.

The guy goes look like Arnold being a fan of him myself and his accomplishments I would almost say this was used for the project.

If you are gonna use the graphics, I would make then a bit sharper. Antialiasing perhaps might help depending on what graphics program you used to create them. More content on front page in the form of text would be good also.

Not bad, but if this is for commercial work and not just for a student example I would say some more work is needed.

[yamahagirl]

:) LOL thanks for your ideas guys and yes it is Arnie - taken from a google image search. Our lecturer does actually look a bit like him and its a bit of a joke on our part as it is only a project. I think I would be out of work if it was for a commercial firm.

Luckily my career aims are business analyst/project management not html or css.

I used buttongenerator.com for the buttons as I did not know how else to make the buttons using CSS???

I will tweak the site given your comments and see if I can improve it. The theme is meant to be red and black btw.

[Cary]

I just want to add a couple things.

The left column overlaps the bottom left link button when viewed in Firefox. Well, at my resolution anyways, which is 1024 by 768. Shrinking the window it looks like it may be fine at 800 x 600.

It seems the images used in the page, except for Arnold's jpg compression, are actually pretty nice quality. The problem is they aren't the sizes you want them displayed at and they render badly when forced to display with stretched or squished dimensions. The buttons are difficult to read as a result.

I just looked at it in IE, and I think the dotted left border is too distracting.

[yamahagirl]

Been working on this again although Evrsoft Page 2006 seems to be a bit buggy and I can't achieve what I really want to. I have a copy of NetObjects 8 but never used it and need it to be intuitive.

Here is my second attempt:

http://student.dc.lincoln.ac.uk/~u052796805/

[Terminator1138]

A lot of nbsp in there. Hmm it looks off in firefox a bit. The buttons for me are still an iffy solution for what you are trying to do. CSS buttons would be better IMO. I see small white pixels around them also.

on a side note, yes firstpage 2006 is buggy in more ways than one. Never used netobjects but might be better to use. Have you thought about using a pre-made template for something like opensource templates?

[yamahagirl]

Thanks for the pointer to opensource templates - had a look but can't find one that floats my boat although I have been working on this the last 3 hours and its late so will see tomorrow. Useful for learning the code though :)

I have managed to get my site to validate with the w3c tool for html and css with some tweaks. I think the firefox browser incompatibility might have to be solved with the "best viewed in IE" as our university virtual campus only really works in IE so the lecturer will view it in that. If it was our networking assignment he hates microsoft!

[Spock]

... he hates microsoft!

He's not alone. Many people hate Micro$haft WinBlows and their other bugs as well but they are so prevalent in the market it is getting harder to find a viable alternative that will allow one to interact with others who use the M$ products. :mad:

If you can, why not try 1st Page 2000? It is not WYSIWYG but it at least works.

[yamahagirl]

I had a look at 1st page 2000 and then read on the forum that there was a trojan in the code?? There is an explanation of where to delete the file in question but a lot of members seemed to dislike it for that reason. Not sure if that is still the case?

[Cary]

The First Page 2000 (http://tucows.mundofree.com/winme/preview/137679.html) file "IScripts\Buttons\Six buttons from hell.izs" is an annoying demonstration of javascript which may be flagged as having a virally infected JS/Loop, but it's no real threat or risk, and can't do anything without being included in a web page.

If you're still not comfortable, I would suggest HTML-Kit (http://www.chami.com/html-kit/), PSPad (http://www.pspad.com/), or KompoZer (http://kompozer.net/) (basically Nvu (http://www.nvu.com/index.php) with some bug fixes) as far as freebies go. KompoZer has a WYSIWYG mode.

[yamahagirl]

:jumpy: Thanks - HTML KIT looks like the most intuitive one to me. I will give it a try and see how it goes. Cheers.